Civilization

Just a quick update...

We finally made it onto our flight from Delhi to London via Vienna. We had a "nice" visit in Vienna from 3am to 7am. Those hard wooden benches were difficult to sleep on, but we managed.

We landed in London early on the 21st and proceeded to Erin's friend CJ's (from Cornell) house. It was great to stay with a real family and not in a hotel for the first time in weeks. We even made it out to a London pub for trivia night. We found out that we don't know a thing about British trivia or pop culture. We did, however, come in second to last. A couple at our table from New Zealand brought up the rear.

Yesterday we got on the Eurostar express train for Paris. After arriving at about 5pm, we crisscrossed Paris on the Metro first to find our hotel, then to go get the keys to an apartment we'll be staying in, then on to a dinner party held in Erin's honor. Unfortunately, we were quite late to the party, but it was fun to have dinner with the family that Erin was an exchange student with when she was in high school. Delphine was her host and in attendance were her partner Christoff, their son Victor, her two sisters (Claire and Madelind), Claire's husband and their Mother. While I understood only a fraction of the conversation, it was a great time. Certainly interesting to try to answer questions from a bewildered French family about why exactly Bush won office again. No anger or resentment, only curiousity.

Today we moved out of our hotel and into the apartment that a friend of Kirsten's lives in. He is in the states for the next couple of weeks, so we can stay for free there. It is in Saint Germaine, which is a beautiful neighborhood right in the heart of Paris. We walked a couple blocks away for our cafe au lait before heading along the Siene, toured Notre Dame, and Christmas shopped in a number of charming stores. We haven't even been here for 24 hours yet. I can't wait to see what the next several days will bring.

We are about to go and meet Erin's cousin Scott who lives in Amsterdam and will be with us for much of the next two weeks.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. We are thinking about you all.

Ted and Erin